30LB R22 (R-22) Refrigerant Gas

This is the cylinder that goes on the van after the leak search, not before it. Gauges are already on the machine and the nameplate charge is known, so the only question left is how much weight goes back in. How far a 30 lb cylinder goes depends on that nameplate, so read it and charge by weight rather than by pressure alone. Recover the old charge; venting it is not an option.

Being a single compound rather than a blend, R-22 has no glide and cannot fractionate, so vapour charging off the cylinder stays legitimate; a blend has to come out as liquid. Pressures run well above the R-12 it displaced and well below R-410A. The original equipment was designed around mineral oil, which is why a retrofit to R-407C or R-422D is rarely the tidy swap the datasheet implies — oil, driers and seals come with it.

New production and import for US service have ended under the phase-out, and that is not a step that reverses. So the conversation on site is the same every time: top up a leak you have found and fixed, retrofit with the oil and component work that implies, or change the machine out. Note what went in, keep the cylinder upright, and log the recovery against the job.